June 6

We've been at our second school, St. Cyprians, for a couple of days. The kids are slowly coming around to us. The students are used to having the teacher ask a question and they all repeat the same answer. It's a little robotic. So here comes this white girl (they don't see whites very often) trying to get them to think for themselves. :) It's been great. I think they really enjoyed my lesson today on Solids, Liquids, and Gasses. They even sang my song!!

Tomorrow we are interviewing the parents of the student we have chosen to interview. I asked my teacher if any of the parents spoke English because it would be a lot easier to talk to them without translation. My little girl's name is Dorcas and she wants to become a doctor. She is very smart and soft spoken.

Tonight at our guest house the ladies in the kitchen taught us how to cook red-reds and plantains. I didn't care to much about learning how to make red-reds but I was very excited about plantains. It was very easy so hopefully I will get a chance to make them at home. The only difference they use palm oil to cook in.

July 6

Sorry I haven't posted anything. I have been feeling a little sick and I haven't had the energy to post, journal, and work on our writing project. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We are past the halfway point in the trip. I am counting down a little, but I know when it comes I will be sad. Next week we are traveling to the north. I pray the roads are good. We have also heard that it is hotter up there! Yuck! I have learned so much from this trip and more than ever am I thankful the world I live in.

I promise when I get home and have a better internet connection I will post a ton of pictures!

I want to say a special thank you to everyone who has prayed for our trip, my friends and family who I miss so much, my roommate who has helped me more than she knows, my neighbors for keeping at watchful eye....Thank you, Thank you! :)

Faces of Africa

A friend of mine used some of my pictures and edited them to make a slide show. Here is the link

http://www.picnik.com/show/id/14980193740_ZDvC3/t/faces-of-africa

Enjoy! She did a wonderful job. Thanks Tiffany!!!!

June 30

Hello all! Sorry I haven't had time to write anything on here. Sunday - Tuesday of this week Chastity and I were responsible for writing on our blog page for the group. We do a lot of writing... journal writing, blog writing, my personal blog writing, and our narrative writing. It's a lot!!!

However, I really want to share a couple of things. I have been able to hand out a couple of things that I have bought and its been amazing. Last week we had kids from T.H.I.S take us around their village. My buddy Dominic was my guide. He was so excited to show me everything. The most touching moment of the entire day was when this little girl around 2 fell down. She was crying. I reached out my hand and she got up to take it. She did not let go. Finally we came close to the river and Dominic told me that she would have to stay and could not go any further with us. When I had to let go she just cried and cried. Broke my heart. We continued our walk around and I came across this little girl who Dominic called his "cousin" she was about 7 years old. I gave her one of the dressed Mrs. Mizzel made me. She was so excited. Later I came across a group of women making foo-foo and spoke with them briefly. After out conversation I gave them a Bible. They were so grateful and continued to tell me "God Bless You" until I was out of sight. Later another little girl came up to me, Belinda. She first said "Madame, I would like a dress." She said it so softly that I could not understand her. Finally after the craziness settled down I asked her again what she said. I could not say no to her. I gave her a dress. A few days later Belinda showed up at the school one afternoon wearing the dress. I gave Dominic a soccer ball, a Bible, and a picture of the two of us. I wrote him a little note telling him to always remember John 3:16. The next day he came up to me telling me that what I wrote meant so much to him. A little girl in my class that is always smiling, Veronica, I also gave a dress and a Bible to. She was so excited but I told her to take it home so the other children would not take it. She had the biggest smile ever. A couple of members on this trip have also asked me for Bibles so they can hand them out and I have been more than happy to give it to them.

On Wednesday we went on a Canopy Walk in and above the rain forest. AMAZING!!! The walk up was killer on my knee. The steps are not even and they have laid stones to help with the walk. But once we got to the top the pain getting up was so worth it. I was just amazed. We were about 100 feet in the air on these bridges. We basically made a circle crossing 7 bridges. It was so cool .

Today, Thursday, we went to the Abaasa Village to meet he chief and see the village. This village is very poor. It was about a 3 mile bumpy ride from the main road to the village. After we met with the chief they showed us around the village taking us to the Methodist Church that Paula and her husband raised money to build and to the library. We brought books to donate to their library that sits very empty, but they use it. Then it was off to St. Cyprian's to visit the school we will be working with for the next week. The drive from our guest house to the school is about 45 minutes or so. The children greeted us with a song and they even put on a performance. We were very welcomed. We toured the school. Our classes are a lot smaller here than at T.H.I.S.

After next week we are headed to the North. I have no idea if we are taking our computers, if there will be Internet access. I just don't know. Please say a prayer for us as we have heard the roads are not good and it will take us about 6 hours to get there with no restrooms is site!!! This should be an adventure!

June 26

I will upload more soon

Today was a better day. It was cloudy out so it wasn't as hot
and it didn't bother me as much. Our lesson today was about adjectives. I read
a book to the kids and I have never seen kids so involved in a book. Not that
my kids in my class don’t pay attention but they never made a sound only to
laugh at the funny parts. They act this way because they do not get read to a
lot so it was a treat. We are interviewing our teacher, Jonah, he is very kind
and I think he really enjoys talking with us. In Ghanaian cultural they do not
talk much about how they feel or plan ahead for things, but I think it makes
him feel good that we want to learn about him. One thing that I think is
amazing about the Ghanaian cultural is that they are happy with what they have.
In American we are always working harder for something else and they are happy
in their station in life. I do not look at their cultural and think "wow,
there is so much they need" or think that they if they only knew
such-and-such was available in the world they would be better. They are happy
with their way of life.

Teaching in these classrooms is an experience. They have open
ceilings so you can hear the teachers around you. I have to wonder if they can
hear me, can they actually learn in this environment? I am amazed at what these
teachers do here. We are trying to share ideas with them so that the students
have more interaction and creativity with their lessons. It is hard because
they are limited on what they have.

My Class

This afternoon was relaxing. We were tourist today. We visited
Elmina Castle which was huge in the slave trade to America. I took a lot of pictures.
It was an amazing place to visit and a lot to take in. I can’t wait to bring
this back to my classroom. After being tourist we went to Coconut grove and had
dinner. It is a tourist sport for tourist who are not actually experiencing
Cape Coast. It is pretty and it would be nice to stay there a day or two but I
do like our hotel because it is just us so we make it feel like home. The staff
jokes with us and practices our fante. Elmina Castle

This is our group blog. www.csuinghana2011.blogspot.com